# 3999
Fergus Walsh, medical correspondent for the BBC, has a blog today on 3 major UK studies that will try to answer some basic questions about how influenza spreads, and how it affects its hosts.
Still more questions than answers
Fergus Walsh | 08:38 UK time, Thursday, 12 November 2009
Influenza viruses have been causing sickness for thousands of years so it may seem curious that there is still a huge amount that we don't understand about them.
This applies especially to H1N1 swine flu which, admittedly, has only been circulating in humans for a matter of months.
A series of research projects in the UK have been announced which will examine every aspect of the swine flu virus - in pig and human populations, and in hospital intensive care units.
£7.5 million pounds of funding has been given by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome Trust, and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) along with some government support.
The research will aim to answer many of the questions which posters on this blog have raised, and more besides:
- • Why do some people and not others become seriously ill with swine flu?
• What proportion of people who are infected have no symptoms (what's known as asymptomatic)?
• If you are asymptomatic, can you still spread flu?
• How useful are antivirals?
• How effective is the vaccine?
• How does H1N1 swine flu behave in pigs?
• Is there a risk that the virus could evolve into a more virulent form in pigs?
• Is there a need for a vaccine for pigs to slow the spread of the virus?
